Power supply & SATA blues...

[junkyarddog22]

Hi. I just bought an Athlon 64 3800 dual core w/a Gigabyte MB - going to be running Linux (Suse 10) for the first time! I bought a case from Amamax (http://www.amamax.com/poma75blatxm.html); the 550W Power Magic power supply doesn't work with my SATA hard drives.

Recommendation: don't buy a case from this company, or at least a Power Magic power supply. Shame on them for not advertising that the P.Magic p.supply has not SATA support.

Anyways, I need to get a replacement power supply. How many watts do I need? I was looking at this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16817153023); but it's only 430 watts. Do I need more wattage? If so, how much?

Thanks in advance,
junkyard doggy

[the_music_man]

Be more specific about your hardware. Which Gigabyte? What else?

[techieMoe]

Do you mean you just don't have the right plugs for your SATA drives? Most SATA drives come with the correct power cables. You could just buy those for a few dollars and save the expense of buying a whole new power supply.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle_cl...ring=mrd&hl=en

Most power supplies as far as I know don't come with SATA power plugs in the box. They rely on the harddrive manufacturer to provide the proper 4-pin to SATA plugs with their drives. At least, mine did.

[junkyarddog22]

I bought SATA power connectors with the case. What happens is that the system will power off after 2 seconds of hitting the power button whenever I connect the SATA drives to the power supply - whether I use the typical power connectors or the SATA connectors.

The Gigbyte MB is model GA-K8NSC-939...

[techieMoe]

I bought SATA power connectors with the case. What happens is that the system will power off after 2 seconds of hitting the power button whenever I connect the SATA drives to the power supply - whether I use the typical power connectors or the SATA connectors.

The Gigbyte MB is model GA-K8NSC-939...

That's a very strange error. 550W should be plenty of power for all your gadgets. You might have a faulty power supply. My system isn't quite as heavy as yours processor-wise, but everything else is pretty comparable. I'm able to run my system comfortably with a 450W PSU from Antec.

Does this only happen with SATA drives? Does it also turn off if you hook up an IDE harddrive?

[junkyarddog22]

Does this only happen with SATA drives? Does it also turn off if you hook up an IDE harddrive?

Yeah it only happens with the SATA drives. Everything else works fine, including my IDE hard drive. If you look around NewEgg reviews of power supplies, some power supplies don't work properly w/SATA drives, which led me to believe that this power supply isn't equipped for SATA drives.

Thus, I'm wondering if I can get away with the 430W power supply I linked in my first post in this topic...

[antidrugue]

Thus, I'm wondering if I can get away with the 430W power supply I linked in my first post in this topic...

Please give more details about your hardware then...

What's your video card? Modern graphic cards can consume a lot of power:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...ption2006.html

[junkyarddog22]

Video card is an Nvidia Ge-Force 6200; 1GB DDR 400 RAM...

[the_music_man]

The card is low rated and doesn't eat much Watts. Did you try pluging the SATA disks in another computer? Try it, this could be a sign for disk failure.

[junkyarddog22]

The card is low rated and doesn't eat much Watts. Did you try pluging the SATA disks in another computer? Try it, this could be a sign for disk failure.

Yeah, they worked for months in my Dell computer purchased 5 years ago...